Foo Fighters recruit Justin Timberlake as backing vocalist

Justin Timberlake will feature on the new Foo Fighters album after a chance studio run-in in Los Angeles.

The SexyBack singer was working at EastWest studios while Dave Grohl and his bandmates were recording Concrete and Gold, and decided to say hi.

During the chat, Justin asked the rockers if he could sit in on a track - just so he could boast to friends that he had recorded with the Foo Fighters.

"We'd drink whiskey in the parking lot," Grohl tells Rolling Stone. "He was really, really cool. Then the night before his last day, he says, 'Can I sing on your record? I don't want to push it, but - I just want to be able to tell my friends'."

Grohl didn't think twice and pulled him into the studio to sing backing vocals.

"He nailed it. I'm telling you - the guy's going somewhere," the rocker jokes.

The Foo Fighters frontman also reveals his friend Sir Paul McCartney plays drums on one track.

The former Beatles star admits he was a little puzzled when he was first asked to get behind bad drummer Taylor Hawkins' kit, but insists he was really keen to be in the studio with the group.

''Even if it had been banjo, I think I probably would have showed up," he says.

Hawkins adds, "You don't generally think of him as a drummer, but he laid that track so effortlessly. He never even heard the song. Dave kind of explained it to him with an acoustic guitar. And he was like, 'Yeah, yeah. I think I know what you're doing'."

Grohl smiles, "He was so good. We played for an hour, then took a break and had bagels and tea. I thought we were done... and someone goes, 'Hey, Paul wants to jam some more'. He rounded everybody up, and we jammed for hours."